3 Year Old Speech Milestones Checklist
This page contains a checklist of the speech and language milestones that a child should have by the age of 3 years old. It also contains links to resources for helping improve speech, language, and social skills for 3-year-olds.
What Speech/Language Skills should a 3-Year-Old Have?
What speech and language skills should a 3-year-old child have? What does speech therapy for a 3-year-old look like? This page includes the 3-year-old speech milestones as well as 3-year-old language milestones.
Keep in mind that these milestones are based on research about typically-developing children but this information is not meant to diagnose a speech-language delay or disorder. There is a wide range of “normal” and just because a child is slightly delayed in a few of these areas, doesn’t necessarily mean he or she has a speech or language delay. Please contact a speech-language pathologist or professional in your area for a screening if you are concerned about your child’s speech and language skills.
3-Year-Old Speech Milestones (Sound Production)
3-Year-Old speech milestones refer specifically to the sounds that a child is able to speak. We use the term “speech” to refer to how a child pronounces words, whereas “language” is used to describe how children use those words to create sentences and communicate with those around them.
- Intelligibility: A 3-year-old’s speech should be understood at least 50% of the time (source: Hustad et. al, 2021)
- Speech Sounds Correct: A 3-year-old should be able to say the following sounds correctly: /b/, /n/, /m/, /p/, /h/, /w/, /d/ (source: Crowe & McLeod, 2020)
- Phonological Processes: A 3-year-old should no longer be using the following speech error patterns (phonological processes):
- Velar Assimilation: Changing non-velar sounds to velar sounds in order to mirror another sound in the word (kack for tack, or guck for duck)
- Nasal Assimilation: Changing non-nasal sounds to nasal sounds in order to mirror another nasal sound in the word (money for funny, or nunny for bunny)
- Stopping of /f/ and /s/ Fricatives: Replacing /f/ and /s/ sounds with a stop (short) sound like /t/ and /p/ (pun for fun, or tee for see)
- Final Consonant Deletion: Deleting the ending consonant off of a word (bu for bus, or no for nose)
- Source: ASHA Resource Page
3-Year-Old Language Milestones
When we look at 3-year-old language milestones, we are looking at how a child is using words and putting those words together to communicate with those around them. A lot goes into language skills. Here is a checklist of the 3-year-old language milestones:
- Sentence Length: A 3-year-old should be speaking in sentences that are, on average, about 3 words long. Some should be shorter and some should be a big longer than 3 words as well. (Source: Rice et. al., 2010)
- Grammatical Markers: According to Brown in 1973, a 3-year-old should be beginning to use some grammatical markers, including the following:
- Present progressive “-ing” at the end of verbs (such as “running” and “jumping”)
. - Prepositions “in” and “on”
. - Plural “-s” (like socks)
. - Irregular Past Tense Verbs (past tense verbs that don’t end in “-ed”, such as “fell” and “ran”)
. - Possessive “’s” (like Mommy’s)
. - Uncontractible Copula (the full form of the verb “to be” when it is the only verb in a sentence, such as “is it Alison?”, “yes it is”)
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- Present progressive “-ing” at the end of verbs (such as “running” and “jumping”)
- Pronouns: Uses some pronouns (such as “I”, “it”, “me”, “my”, “mine”, “you”, “your”, “she”, “he”, “yours=”, and “we”) (source: Vollmer 2023)
. - Asking Questions: Asks basic “who”, “what”, “where”, or “why” questions (like “where is Mommy”) (Source: CDC)
. - Vocabulary: A 3-year-old should have a word for almost everything (Source: ASHA) and should be able to use action words like “running” and “eating” to describe pictures when asked (Source CDC)
. - Following Directions: A 3-year-old should be able to follow 2-part directions like “get the spoon and put it on the table”. (Source: ASHA)
3-Year-Old Social Skill/Interaction Milestones
Another aspect of 3-year-old speech milestones is how well they can interact with others. Here are some milestones related to social skills and interaction.
- Notices other children and joins them to play (Source: CDC)
- Talks with a familiar caregiver in “conversation” with at least two back-and-forth exchanges (Source: CDC)
- Says first name when asked (Source: CDC)
- Can play with 1-2 peers, with turn-taking play and joint goals (Source: Malik & Marwaha, 2022)
- Begins to use imaginative/fantasy play, such as pretending to be a cat (Source: Malik & Marwaha, 2022)
- Uses attention-getting words (Source: ASHA)
- Clarifies and Asks for Clarification (Source: ASHA)
- Understands that others may feel differently than oneself (Source: ASHA)
For more resources on teaching social skills to children, click here.
Structured Curriculums for Teaching Speech/Language Skills:
Pre-made speech, language, and social curriculums for helping children catch up at home, at school, or in speech therapy.
About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP
Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.
Fun Fact: When my son was three, he once got mad at me and told me he was going to send me to Antarctica in nothing but a t-shirt. He had an overly large vocabulary for a 3-year-old….along with an overly large amount of sass. He still has both to this day.
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